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InfoBarrel 101 - Chitika Ads

Chitika is an advertising company that is similar to Google AdSense, but it does have some distinct differences that make it unique. InfoBarrel allows you to integrate Chitika into your articles and earn revenue off of the clicks 100% of the time your article is displayed. If you are unfamiliar with Chitika, or just aren't exactly sure how Chitika works, then this article should be of tremendous help.

What is Chitika?

In the screen shot above, the Chitika ad block is circled in red. It contains three slots for advertisements.

For the example I am using, I searched a fellow InfoBarreler's article about the Top 10 Most Valuable Baseball Cards. I used the search query "most valuable baseball cards". As you can see on the Chitika ad block, those keywords are shown and highlighted. This is because Chitika ads have a special feature where they show relevant ads specifically catered to individual visitors that come via search engines. It uses the entrance keywords as the means to find and display relevant ads for the person doing the search.

If a user is visiting your page directly, for instance if someone clicks on your article via the Related Articles section, then your ads will be relevant to the most significant keywords in your article.

Chitika normally doesn't have many problems showing relevant ads either way. The only times they might have issues matching up are when you write about obscure topics, or if you get an odd entrance keyword or one that was spelled incorrectly. The great thing about Chitika is that you don't really have to do much keyword optimizing to get relevant ads.

How do I set Chitika up with InfoBarrel?

Getting hooked up with Chitika through your InfoBarrel account is a breeze. First, you'll need to sign up with Chitika. If you haven't done so yet you can quickly sign up for free here.

After signing up with Chitika, you simply come back to InfoBarrel and locate the MyInfoBarrel tab on the top of your screen, and after getting to your bio page you will click the button that say "Manage My Account". There you will see a list of fields to fill in. Towards the bottom with be the field where you enter your Chitika ID that you used to sign up with. Save your changes and that's it! You're now hooked up with Chitika and ready to start earning more money on InfoBarrel!

How much are Chitika ad clicks worth?

The one downside to Chitika is the fact that the clicks are not worth nearly as much as Google AdSense clicks. You won't usually see a click worth more than 11 cents, and many are in the 4-5 cent range.

That being said, Chitika ad clicks do add up, and while they might not be as profitable as Google AdSense, it's still some extra revenue that this great site enables you to have.

Can I move the Chitika ads around?

Just like with the Google AdSense ad units, you cannot move the Chitika ads around either. They are strategically placed in the best possible spot for optimum click through rates, as tested by the owners of InfoBarrel.

How do I see my earnings?

You can easily track your earnings from Chitika by visiting their main website and logging in. After doing so you will be taken to a screen that shows your earnings for the previous day, as well as the rest of the month. Unfortunately, you are not able to track individual channels to see which articles are earning the most.

Fun Fact About Chitika

A few months ago, Chitika did a study that showed that Bing users are 55% more likely to click on a Chitika ad than Google users, and 21% more likely to click them than Yahoo! users. The full article can be read here.

If you have any questions about Chitika, feel free to leave a comment and ask, I will do my best to answer!

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There are a few things about this comment that confuse me...lol. I'm actually 24, and where did you see my pic? My avatar is actually a picture of Fry, the main character for the TV show Futurama.
The funny thing is I actually do look extremely young for my age. Most people think I'm about 18 or so. I don't like it now, but I'm sure I will later in life :-).
About your comment on Chitika, do you mean you're waiting for Chitika to stop being busy, or InfoBarrel?

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Oh ok, lol, you had me worried because I do look young for my age but I had no clue how you could have known that! :-)
I do remember Chitika taking a few days to approve me, but I noticed you wrote your first articles over a month ago. Is that when you first signed up with Chitika? If so, I would suggest shooting them an e-mail and seeing what the hold up is. It shouldn't take more than 4 or 5 days for your account to be activated, a week at the most. Good luck with Chitika and a belated welcome to InfoBarrel!

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When I sign up for Chitika, what do I put as the primary website address? Do I put:
http://www.infobarrel.com/
or
http://www.infobarrel.com/Users/Crystal_Widger/
I'm just a little confused on this part.. Thanks :-)

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I did :-) I wasn't sure as to what to put for the page impressions though. I didn't know if if meant my articles or the website itself. So, I just guessed. I don't even remember what I put. I also signed up for the SheToldMe website. I give kudos to everyone that is successful writing online, because this is so much work. It's alot of time to go to all of the websites. Not to mention, all of the articles that I'm trying to take in. It's a lot of information! I know the work will be worth it. I want to have my own successes with writing, so it's a lot of work, but worth it :-)

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Yes, Crystal, it's definitely worth it and it keeps getting easier as time goes by. You'll eventually get used to all of it and understand it better just like with a new job. I read your forum post about the page impressions and I misunderstood. I forgot that you had to tell Chitika how many page impressions the site gets. Don't worry, I just guessed on it too when I signed up. I don't think it really matters. Good luck with everything!

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Very good article. Thanks for all of the help! I signed up for Chitika this week, but received a message that they are currently putting any approval of new accounts on hold while they upgrade their site and software. Hopefully I'll soon be approved!

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Great article Travis! I just signed up under your link. They said that they are upgrading so are holding off on approvals so we'll have to wait and see :)
Oh..I just realized Healthfitness said the same thing oops:)
Anyways, great article with great tips :)

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I just got confused....
when I'm going to chitika I see Impressions/Clicks eCPM and Impressions/Clicks Revenue. They both show stars like this ->"*" but... I already got 22 impressions in total... why don't I earn?
greets nerames

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Very helpful and informative article, thanks Travis. I signed up for a Chitica account two days ago and it was approved yesterday. One point on this comment of your to Crystal : "You would need to put the main InfoBarrel domain. Just http://www.infobarrel.com"
When I do that I receive this message : "An error occurred adding the domain "http://www.infobarrel.com" please try again"
I have added my Chitica username in the Advertising Profile of my Infobarrel account but that is not visible in my Chitica account. On the contrary the Infobarrel domain was automatically inserted in the website list of my adsense account (there was no need to add Infobarrel manually), not long after giving my adsense publisher code to Infobarrel.